Positive spin on transit strike days

“Let me say there is a silver lining in this cloud: Manhattan, today, is less like its usual convergence of angry rivers of traffic, and more like a peaceful countryside of gentle streams of cars. It’s nice. And, to top it off, there are cones lining the major avenues running north and south along the length of the island — believe it or not, these are bike lanes, intended to let human beings get to and from without the aid of automakers or oil companies. I’ve always wanted to see cars sharing the city’s major thoroughfares with bicycle traffic.”

I was in New York during the 1980 transit strike and got caught in a torrential storm — one of those sideways-rain days. It was a Wednesday. I gave up on trying to walk to my downtown appointment and instead walked a block from where I was to the Times Square TKTS booth to see if I could buy a half-priced ticket to a Broadway show to get out of the rain (it was before Starbucks & wifi). I ended up seeing a matinee of a revival of West Side Story (starring Debbie Allen if Wikipedia is correct) and that night, saw Sweeny Tood (starring Angela Landsbury). So, during transit strikes, I think of Stephen Sondheim.

Update: Jeff Jarvis is not so sanguine, but he does point out that like during a blackout, “lots of blog posts will be born” during the transit strike.

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Launched in August, 2000, RexBlog.com is the personal blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., a customer media and marketing services company founded in 1991 in Nashville. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of SmallBusiness.com.(...)